Solving San Francisco’s Planning Paradox

The City’s work on the physical and economic development of San Francisco does not happen by accident. Rather, this work is guided by a set of overarching objectives and principals that help form a strategic blue print for San Francisco’s future.

In true San Francisco fashion, that strategy starts with a paradox. On the one hand, one of the City’s defining characteristics is that San Francisco regularly reinvents itself, embracing change and innovation like few places on Earth. On the other hand, because so many of us justly love San Francisco so deeply, just the way it is or as it was in our youth or on the day we moved here, many San Franciscans strongly resist change.

Fortunately, we have some fairly potent tools to help resolve this paradox. One of these tools is the basic recognition that smart growth and neighborhood preservation can and must compliment one another in the City. One of the characteristics that makes San Francisco such an extraordinary City is the incredible collection of “urban villages” that make up our neighborhoods. Protecting the character and the vibrancy of these neighborhoods is a prime objective of the City’s planning and economic development process.

At the same time, growth is not only inevitable, we should embrace it. Cities are like living organisms – if they do not grow and evolve they stagnate and whither. Stasis is not an option. Many of the qualities that San Franciscans most value about the City – its dizzying economic, social, ethnic and racial diversity, a strong arts community, a vibrant street life, a City imbued with opportunity and the spirit of innovation – go hand in hand with a strong economy. From Paris to Shanghai to New York to Seattle, commerce is the lifeblood of any great city.

All of which leads us to question “Where are the right areas to direct growth in San Francisco?”

One obvious factor is to direct growth to those areas of the City that are best served by mass transit. In another blog we’ll focus on the Transbay Transit Center project and the surrounding Transbay Redevelopment Plan – which is probably the highest expression of “Transit Oriented Development” in the country. In Transbay, San Francisco is literally shifting the center of downtown – including thousands of new units of housing and millions of square feet of new office space – right on top of what will be the Bay Area’s Grand Central Station.

Treasure Island Today

Another major factor affecting future growth in San Francisco may be less obvious, but it is equally profound. For a City as densely compact as San Francisco we have relatively enormous tracts of land that have been effectively abandoned for many, many years – where – in stark contrast to the so-called urban renewal projects of the 60’s and 70’s – we can concentrate new development without displacing or disrupting existing neighborhoods. And interestingly most of this land lies adjacent to our most precious resource, the San Francisco Bay – from Mission Bay to Treasure Island and Pier 70 to the Hunters Point Shipyard.

Treasure Island Tomorrow

Commercial and residential growth can also be directed smartly towards areas of the City that, while not abandoned, are transitioning from prior economic uses that may no longer be vibrant or even viable, particularly in and around major transit centers. The Rincon Hill, Transbay, Market-Octavia and Eastern Neighborhoods plans have all been adopted under the Mayor’s guidance, and similar opportunities exist in portions of the former industrial areas South of Market and at the site of the former Schlage Lock factory in Visitation Valley.

The Mayor, as you probably know, is somewhat fanatic about recycling and in essence with these projects, we are recycling our most precious commodity – land. All told, by focusing our energies in the right areas of the City, we can accommodate the future growth needs of San Francisco without compromising the essential character of our beloved urban villages.